Risa Lovell has been attending Cornerstone Church in Caledonia, Michigan, for less than a year, but in that time, she’s gone all in—getting baptized and volunteering on the guest services team, and with VBS and meal packing for underprivileged kids in local schools.
“From the first sermon, I loved it,” Lovell says. “It felt like home. Pastor Ken really built an emotional connection, and I just felt like he spoke to me. Church experiences for me in the past have been a little bit of command and control: You come on Sunday, do these things, donate and then you’re on your way. Cornerstone feels like a community to me. People are happy you’re there and they know you’re there. It’s a big church, but it really feels small.”
Lovell’s experience is a clear sign that a shift in the church’s priorities is working since the pandemic. That was when Cornerstone’s leadership team noticed their current model was ineffective. They offered an incredible Sunday worship experience, but it wasn’t enough to sustain people when times grew tough. Attendees suddenly turned to church online, and an entire country—even an entire world—of excellent Sunday preaching and worship was at their fingertips. What need could Cornerstone fill for its local members that some faraway church could not?
Lead Pastor Ken Nash realized they needed to be known.
“We can help you in your walk with Christ. We can help you walk in your calling. We can really know your story and journey with you,” Nash explains. “We’re taking discipleship seriously, and it’s starting to work.”
As they’ve spent more time engaging with people Monday through Saturday, the energy is coming alive on those days—not just Sundays—as people live out their callings seven days a week.
“Ephesians 4 says I’m to equip the people for the work of ministry, and the body of Christ gets built up,” Nash says. “I really want the rest of whatever years God gives me in ministry to be about helping people find their calling, and man, that is a game changer. Because when people feel this is their ministry and their calling, they are just engaged differently. The local church needs to be about helping people get involved in ministry, which means you have to hold onto the ministry loosely. Every day when I wake up, I think, How am I going to be surprised by the vision of Cornerstone changing based on conversations we have with people today? That means we are going to go in new directions based on where the laypeople take us.”
Their metric for measuring the success of their discipleship is what Nash calls the Four P’s Plan: Personal, Participate, Passion and Prepare. Each step is incremental, starting with asking every staff member and leader to get personal with 20–30 people. They learn names and stories and get to know details of people’s lives, so they’re more than just a number. When those people feel known and are discipled, maybe 15 will begin to participate in ministry. Of those, around eight might begin to find their passion and calling. Then, maybe a few of those could show leadership potential, so the team would begin to prepare them for that role.
“We are trying to get all of our leaders to reproduce themselves and to prepare people to jump into ministry leadership,” adds Nash. “We’re asking our leaders to give authority to the right people at the right time. When you start to give authority away, people start to take ownership in their church rather than just being passive volunteers watching the staff live out their calling.”
And when people are living out their calling, they’re engaged in their church and in their community, and they want others to experience it, too.
“When people come to us, we have a spirit of yes,” Nash says. “How can we help you live out your calling? Sometimes their calling will be starting a new ministry at Cornerstone, but a lot of times it will be out in their workplace, in the school system, in their neighborhoods. And people will start to have conversations where they extend invitations to church. Now, bigger isn’t better. Better is better. And better means we know your name, we know what makes you passionate and we want to help you become the best expression of yourself.”